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by Nick Hoppner
Holy Week is a time of preparation
for renewal and rebirth. This year, this writer spent several days of April's Holy
Week in a small town in East Texas watching the "death" of our silver 2002 GL1800
as a two-wheeled motorcycle and its "resurrection" as a three-wheeled trike. While
witnessing the process hardly qualifies as a religious conversion, it was indeed fascinating
to witness the conversion into a trike of a motorcycle I'd personally ridden thousands
of miles on, and that I know I'll ride for many more. Motor Trike's owners Jeff &
Diane Vey and the company's staff of 44 gave us a remarkable first-hand opportunity
to learn a great deal about why the Motor Trike corporation experienced dynamic growth
right through the post-911 economic doldrums, and why Motor Trike customers are passionately
loyal.
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GL1800 had arrived in Texas before me. Due to a schedule crunch, we shipped the massive
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silver Wing from Phoenix via 18-wheeler contracted by
JC Motors (www.mo-torcycleshippers.com),
one of the Diamond Partners of GWRRA. The bike was loaded onto a special heavyweight
pallet, tied down with soft ties and tie-downs, covered and padded within the bowels
of a full-sized semi trailer. The bike arrived in perfect condition two days before
I did, and JC Motors' pick up, transport, delivery service and customer service was
A-OK.
On Monday morning, I walked into Motor Trike's spotless installation
area to find the bike already up high on one of the specially designed lifts, its
saddlebags, trunk, exhaust system and saddle removed. Technician Richard Graham was
about an hour into the disassembly.
Several other bikes were also being converted...a zero-miles white
GL1800, a Harley-Davidson FLH, a GL1500 and a Yamaha Venture, the latter back for
a rebuild. Motor Trike stands behind their conversions no matter what vintage.
As Richard worked, I had time to wander
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through the Motor Trike plant. All on one level, the manufacturing
rooms flow together. In the back, semi loads of used rear ends from 7.5 inch Fords,
commonly used on Ranger pickup trucks or six-cylinder Mustangs still in production,
are stacked. Motor Trike has open orders with salvage yards across the nation, recycling
what otherwise might just be so much scrap. Actually, only the rear end housing is
used. After being sandblasted, cleaned, washed, shortened, welded, inspected and painted,
the Motor Trike rear ends are totally remanufactured; all the insides of the housings
are new: the axle, the gears, the bearings, the seals...everything manufactured to
Motor Trike specifications. Quality control is "owned" by each of the
employees. Each rear end
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has a Motor Trike serial number and a gear ratio stamped
on it, and every one also has the welder's initials stamped on...an affirmation of
pride in workmanship or a personal badge of quality approval.
Motor Trike has some of the best welders in the nation. Their work
is so even it's pretty, and it's a shame most owners will never see the welds.Day
in, day out, these guys repeat this artistry, reaffirming the pride in American craftsmanship.
At an adjacent work area, a welder worked on a specially-designed
jig table welding together Motor Trike's patented ladder bar suspension frame. This
assemblage of tubes and heim joints has its roots in drag racing. By assembling
dragsters with flexibility and
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